FILE PHOTO: A street sign for Wall Street is seen in the financial district in New York, U.S., November 8, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
President Donald Trump's tariffs sent shockwaves through markets on Thursday — and Wall Street is reeling.
Money managers, brokers and bankers, described what the Wall Street Journal called "unprecedented shock" and fear that massive economic gainst since the pandemic may have ended.
"We’re in a macro world that I’ve never seen now,” Stephen Solaka, managing partner at Belmont Capital Group, told the newspaper. “We’ve been used to sort of the, ‘buy the dip, things kind of work out,’ scenario.”
ALSO READ:The new guy in charge of USAID doesn't believe in foreign aid
Solaka said he sensed anxiety levels from clients they hadn't felt possibly ever. And whereas those clients typically believe the market will return, not this time.
“We’ve seen a lot of clients look to derisk,” Solaka said.
And he's not alone. Investors who believed Trump's tariffs wouldn't be as severe were greeted with a rude awakening on his so-called "Liberation Day."
“It was pretty shocking,” Danny Kirsch, head of options at Piper Sandler, told the Journal. “The bull argument keeps shrinking,” he added.
Trump's announcement stunned Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.
“My initial reaction was, worse than worst case. This is going to be an all-time panic moment,” said Ives. “I almost couldn’t breathe.”
Meanwhile, Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, told the Journal, "We’ve been the frog in boiling water here, getting used to the dramatic nature of these announcements. Today is a day where investors are just beaten into acceptance.”
The shock on Wall Street comes as economists at JPMorgan Chase raised their estimated odds of a global recession to 60% on Thursday.